Last week I asked you about the scariest books you’ve ever read.
This week? It’s time to talk about movies.
So, hit the comments, and let us all know: what are the scariest movies you’ve ever seen? (They don’t have to be horror, explicitly — though certainly we want some of those in there.) Why did it freak you out? Was it just one scene? The whole film? Something deeper and darker?
A film that scared me early on was The Shining, less because of it’s overt fright factor. More because of it’s slow, freaky creep. I had never seen a film like it. And even now, not many horror films are willing to just be slow and strange for their (long) duration. (If I watch it now, I sometimes think it’s a bit funny — “Oh, ha ha, look at that hilarious Blowjob Koala Man! Look, Shelley Duvall runs like an embarrassed sandpiper. Oh, Jack Nicholson, you murderous ghost-talking scamp.) If you want a film that disturbs me these days — look no further than Requiem for a Dream, whose final act is so harrowing even thinking about it gives me the shivering shits.
Let’s hear it from you.
Scary, freaky, disturbing movies.
GO.
Jason Rohan says:
“The Descent,” a UK movie about spelunking which goes horribly wrong. I left the movie theatre dumbstruck.
October 20, 2014 — 7:06 AM
Kay Camden says:
Scariest movie ever.
October 20, 2014 — 10:00 AM
Cristina says:
Early on, The Exorcist, then Seven. I don’t watch many scary movies. I just can’t take it! (Much to my the dismay of my horror loving husband).
October 20, 2014 — 7:06 AM
tgotsis13 says:
I still find The Exorcist terrifying. It’s hard to find the new horror films scary. Though it is disturbing to watch Nightmare on Elm Street and then dream about Freddy. Ugh.
October 20, 2014 — 7:10 AM
Cristina says:
Freddy!!!! I hate that song the kids would sing. *shivers*
October 20, 2014 — 7:58 AM
tgotsis13 says:
That was the worst!!!
October 20, 2014 — 7:59 AM
Mark Matthews says:
Those damn Wizard of Oz monkeys when I was 6. Then when I was 12, that damn Tall guy from Phantasm. “BOYYYY!”.
Also loved The Descent as described above.
October 20, 2014 — 7:16 AM
Veronica Sicoe says:
I’ve seen more horror movies than I can remember, but without a doubt, the scariest (because oh so possible, mostly) were Martyrs, The Divide, and a “classic”: The Grudge.
October 20, 2014 — 7:17 AM
samakain says:
So glad to see someone mention The Divide, that movie made me squirm in all manner of ways.
October 20, 2014 — 9:59 AM
DRR says:
When I was in first grade, my school asked parents to bring their children in for a special after-school movie meant to help teach the kids how to stay safe. Being a caring and concerned parent, my mom, of course, took me to the viewing. This movie has haunted me for more than three decades. A few years will go by, and then I’ll suddenly have it pop up in a nightmare, or some child’s singing voice will remind me of the doomed little girl. With the advent of the internet, I located the actual movie and rewatched it. The lousy production values aside, the casting was perfect. Those people look just like my memories of my family and friends. That town IS my town (at least as I recall it). The ending still horrifies me, but today my horror comes less from the pathos of it all and more from the realization that some very well-meaning people made a really bad decision to show this to a room full of 1st graders. https://archive.org/details/CHILD
October 20, 2014 — 7:18 AM
Annie Howland says:
WTF? I just watched this. It sucks you in with its sixties people…creepy horn music…bizarre hair and clothes (oh, god, my Mom had a crocheted hat) and the part where the frantic mother randomly thinks, “When she was six, I told her about where babies come from…” (cut to scene of chickens chasing each other) was freaky. What? Um, I guess you should have told her taking candy from strangers might lead to sex, lady. BUT what I saw at 18:36? Holy crap, they showed this to six year olds? Shitshitshit. Hollywood can’t come up with anything to top this for horror.
October 20, 2014 — 9:07 AM
Jen says:
Poltergeist always scared me as a kid (I still can’t sleep with the closet door open.) And this may be totally predictable, but Paranormal Activity 1 and 2 absolutely terrified me. The slow build, the realism of using “found footage,” the sight of people straight up getting dragged out of bed by an unseen force…*shudder*
October 20, 2014 — 7:25 AM
Kay Camden says:
Paranormal Activity took a few days to shake off. I couldn’t walk around my house alone at night after watching the first one, which is pretty much the first time that’s ever happened to me.
And watching the second one, my husband and I kept having to pause it to take breaks and catch our breath. Which is saying a lot, because unfortunately, scary movies rarely scare me. I have a hard time finding ones that get to me. (Husband’s a wuss, though. Jump scares get him EVERY TIME.)
October 20, 2014 — 10:09 AM
jen says:
I do believe I only made it through The Conjuring by taking my glasses off at strategic moments (it’s harder to be scared by a big blur). Back in the day, I seriously couldn’t deal with The Sixth Sense (the tent! and the hand from under the bed…. urgh) but that got less disturbing once you saw the ending; the last shot of Blair Witch Project, and also The Ring. I was so scared the night I saw The Ring in the cinema I couldn’t drive the rest of the way home alone through the fog in the dark and had to stay at my friend’s house.
In terms of very new horror films, I just saw It Follows at a festival. Deliberately retro (70s set) and the kind of half-glimpsed, could-be-nothing relentlessly slow monster that has you racking up the paranoia by the end (and an entire scene set to TS Eliot’s Prufrock. Way to win me over). If anyone’s nostalgic for the Carpenter era, keep an eye out for that one.
October 20, 2014 — 7:32 AM
angelomarcos says:
The last shot of the Blair Witch Project, definitely!
Every so often that image will flash into my mind – usually when I’m by myself somewhere – and it’ll just freak me out all over again..!
October 20, 2014 — 8:45 AM
Andrea Stanet says:
The Exorcist – saw it when I was really young (not by choice) and it freaks me out to this day.
Death Wish II – another one I saw when I was around 12. It isn’t a horror movie, but the violence was a bit much for my young mind.
28 Days Later – zombies aren’t supposed to run. It’s just wrong.
October 20, 2014 — 7:32 AM
Himani says:
When I was young, I accidentally switched channels to IT (the TV mini-series) and watched the entire thing. Tim Curry’s portrayal of Pennywise the killer clown ruined clowns for me. In my late teens, THE RING scared the hell out of me. I had a TV in my room back then and I had to turn it to the wall so I wouldn’t stare at it all night just in case Samara crawled out. Recently I saw LAKE MUNGO and that was disturbingly, eerily scary. Its climatic scene still gives me shivers just thinking about it.
October 20, 2014 — 7:33 AM
shagun1593 says:
‘The Grudge’ all the way.. i was not able to sleep for 3 months after seeing that movie. Thinking about that movie still gives me shivers and even now i am not able to sleep alone.
October 20, 2014 — 7:37 AM
Bernice Mills (@jaggedrain) says:
is that the one with the ghost that made the click-crrrr sound? With the white face, and it takes place in Japan, I think and *shudders* that was scary af, I think i must have blocked the whole movie out.
October 20, 2014 — 7:49 AM
tedra says:
Oh yep!
October 21, 2014 — 12:07 AM
jbrayweber says:
The bloodless When A Stranger Calls.
October 20, 2014 — 7:41 AM
Bernice Mills (@jaggedrain) says:
If we’re talking pure scariness, I’m going to go with Event Horison. I watched it when I was maybe eight or so (definitely before high school) and in hindsight maybe my dad should have explained to me that this was not the kind of movie I would enjoy. The whole thing was just terrifying, and has instilled in me an enduring love of ghost ships. also loads and loads and LOADS of nightmares. (for those who don’t know, Sam Neill and a bunch of other people go onto a ship which had been missing for like 10 years or something and returned empty and then they all go lala because its a DEATH SHIP. Some of the Reaper-related Firefly scenes gave me serious Event Horizon flashbacks.
If we’re talking about ick factor, there was a movie called Cabin Fever that I was forced to watch once, and it was literally the most disgusting thing I have ever seen. That’s another thing that pops up in the old eyelid theatre occasionally. Ugh, flesh eating diseases ugh ugh ugh and then there was the shaving scene eurgh…
October 20, 2014 — 7:48 AM
Cristina says:
Event Horizon still haunts me. Sam Neil killed it (and sleep for days)
October 20, 2014 — 7:59 AM
Heather Wolfe says:
Event Horizon…yes and I didn’t even watch the entire movie.
October 20, 2014 — 9:25 AM
A Citizen of the World says:
I walked into Event Horizon thinking it was a space adventure.
I walked out of Event Horizon (after the movie ended) with my eyes like this: @@
And no sleep that night me.
October 20, 2014 — 9:33 AM
mckkenzie says:
Yes, this! Event Horizon. Absolutely. Was going to make my own entry, but flipped through the comments first because I knew I couldn’t be the only one terrified by this movie. I saw it as an adult…cannot even imagine someone seeing it as a child!! The description doesn’t sound so bad, right? But there is just something about the atmosphere, the skin-crawling creepiness…aagh!!!!!
October 20, 2014 — 10:06 AM
Patti says:
Rosemary’s Baby, when I was a child – I still remember it after 40 years and Sleeping with the Enemy – the scariest part happened not long after I saw the movie: I came home one day and found all the cans and spices in the pantry meticulously lined up, with all of the labels spaced apart in ordered rows, alphabetized; how creepy is that?
October 20, 2014 — 7:50 AM
Charlotte Copper says:
Still with me today…Hellraiser. Two words “pinhead” and “meat-hooks”.
October 20, 2014 — 7:51 AM
Mozette says:
I did the trilogy marathon with my brother and his mates a week before Christmas… very cool… well, until night fell…
… not cool then. 🙁
October 20, 2014 — 8:51 AM
Cristina says:
Ahhh! Hellraiser! My mother made us watch that one. O_o
October 20, 2014 — 10:01 AM
Jon Dayton says:
Nightmare on elm streets. Freddy doesn’t particularly bother me, but after one of those marathons when I was younger then in the middle of the night I woke up to a glowing hand on the same TV screen. By being nearsighted, reflections without my corrective lenses shift thinking they are moving on which is why the movie freaks me out. That and the movie House where he gets pulled through the mirror by his own reflection.
October 20, 2014 — 7:56 AM
Dorothy says:
Only 2 movies that have given me nightmares, Dress to Kill with Michael Cain, at a time when a man dressed as a woman was usually a comedy, and Looking for Mr. Goodbar with Richard Gere, based on a true event of a murder of a school teacher.
October 20, 2014 — 8:00 AM
Craig Forsyth says:
The Burning (1981), seen in 1982 when I was far too young to watch it. Gave me nightmares for weeks afterwards. Same with The Fury (1978) and Coma (1978). As you can tell, I never learned my lesson.
October 20, 2014 — 8:04 AM
June Weiss says:
Yes, The Fury was superb! And so scary because they had totally manipulated the poor boy’s memories and perceptions to bring him to that point.
October 20, 2014 — 10:12 AM
tedrw says:
Aww, I saw someone mention Poltergeist. That was a good one and so was the The Ring. Seen the Japanese version?? They have some good horror movies. But mine is INSIDIOUS. It was insane. It was like watching one of my books come to life. I loved it. It freaked me out from beginning to end and couldn’t wait to see part two which was a let down in comparison but hey, sequels.
October 20, 2014 — 8:12 AM
Jim Heskett says:
As a kid, The Shining, Pet Semetary, Raiders of the Lost Ark because of the nazi-melting scene (spoiler alert, sorry) As an adult, it’s quite hard to scare me. But I do remember The Ring with Naomi Watts being freaky
October 20, 2014 — 8:21 AM
Kirk Jolly says:
Best classics to me are Wait Until Dark and The Omen. Both have that nice slow buildup with a good climax.
A more recent favorite is The Strangers. It’s just such a quiet movie to start. There’s no real pretense for what’s going on. Psychos in masks just show up and start torturing this poor couple.
The Descent is quite good as mentioned. Another good foreign one is High Tension.
October 20, 2014 — 8:22 AM
Jenni Cornell says:
Wait Until Dark was great. Still makes kids today jump. Wish they could do scary without all the gore.
October 20, 2014 — 10:53 AM
Kirk Jolly says:
Few could so much with so little like Hitchcock.
October 20, 2014 — 1:51 PM
Élan says:
I’m glad someone mentioned Wait Until Dark. That’s definitely my kind of scary.
October 20, 2014 — 10:53 AM
donnaeve says:
The scariest movies to me are the ones based on truth/fact. THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE had me feeling very *disturbed* after seeing it. I read later the lawyer who represented the priest who performed the exorcism gave her notes on the case to the director or producer. She’d also been an agnostic – until she took that case. She left her practice and converted to Christianity when it was over.
I guess the debate still goes on…if Anneliese Michel (called Emily Rose in U.S. made movie) was actually possessed, or did she just have schizophrenia. That movie still bothers me to this day…just like THE EXORCIST, only this one, maybe because it’s more recent and with actual recordings and pics of the real Anneliese Michel, seems more grounded in fact than fiction. Brrrr!
October 20, 2014 — 8:27 AM
Angelo Marcos says:
The one shot of that film that stays with me is the boyfriend waking up in the middle of the night, seeing that Emily Rose isn’t in bed, and then noticing her contorted and staring up at him from the floor.
I’m sitting here in the middle of the day writing this and it’s still freaking me out…!
October 20, 2014 — 8:42 AM
donnaeve says:
Yes! That particular scene made me jump, even though the camera panned very slowly and revealed her. Her boyfriend was so calm, but her eyes. Good God. I would have flipped out if I’d seen someone staring at me like that.
October 20, 2014 — 8:47 AM
angelomarcos says:
Yeah, me too.
Just as an aside, since writing my first comment here I looked up the name you mentioned – Annaliese Michel – and took a look at some of the details of that case…
Conclusion: I’m not going to look up anything on the internet anymore.
October 20, 2014 — 12:23 PM
donnaeve says:
Funny! I had to look up her name before I posted b/c I couldn’t remember it. We might have seen the same thing, on the same site. The material there is compelling, but I say read/listen at your own risk.
October 20, 2014 — 12:47 PM
Joanne Austin says:
The Donald Sutherland version of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” but mostly for one scene, and not helped by the circumstances. We got cable in the early 1980s, and had to change channels using the dial on the cable box, which for me often meant kneeling with my face right next to the TV while I reached up to flip the dial. I happened to come across the movie one day while doing this, but at the very scene where the homeless guy/dog pod “thing” comes running up to Sutherland’s character. I screamed and pulled the neck of my turtleneck shirt up over my face while my mom and brother laughed at me. Nice! That pod thing still disturbs me. I know you can see that scene on YouTube.
October 20, 2014 — 8:37 AM
Mozette says:
In my house – when I was growing up – Dad outlawed horror movies. God knows why, but he did.
So, I have never seen any Freddy Crueger movies or Friday 13th movies either. People think I’m deprived, but then again, I’m a huge SK fan… 😀
Anyhooo… here’s a list of creepy movies I have seen:
‘Hellraiser I & II’
Hellbound (before it was banned in Queensland for 15 years)
‘Gremlins’ – yes for a 12 year old, that was creepy
‘Poltergeist’
‘In the Mouth of Madness’ – you want fucked-up creepy, this is it (it’s about a writer)
‘Secret Window’
‘The Omen’
’28 Days Later’
Okay… that’s all I can think of to begin with.
Yes, I’ve seen more than just those… 😀
October 20, 2014 — 8:49 AM
Mozette says:
Oh… yeah, have I mentioned guys, that I live on my own… makes the viewing of horror movies all the more worse.
I don’t have somebody to hang onto or anyone to talk to after that movie is finished… you know, to bring me back to planet Earth afterwards.
So my brain is still kinda living in the movie when I’ve gone to bed… 🙁
October 20, 2014 — 8:54 AM
Mikołaj Stankiewicz says:
When I was a kid I was absolutely terrified of The Sixth Sense so much, that I watche most of it literally from behind the couch. The worst scene was the one when the kid is locked in the closet and ghost mauls him.
But even earlier, I was absolutely terrified of… Ghostbusters. No kidding. I remeber to this day what fear was struck into me by the scene where the ghost kidnaps the baby in a stroller and later perfoms some sort of ritual to possess the baby. I rewatched it years later and found it much more entertaining, but I still remember very little about the movei so I’ll have to rewatch it again soon. Same goes for The Frighteners which I also feared as a kid.
As of now I don’t really watch horror movies, mainly because I’m disgusted by gore and prefer movies which build tension like The Shining you mentioned. The last horror movie I watched was the stop-motion masterpiece Coraline, which was awesome, and I mean it in both meanings.
October 20, 2014 — 8:49 AM
Samantha Warren says:
Now that I’m a bit *cough* older, scary movies don’t bother me near as much. The Ring, which terrified most of my roommates at the time, was just good entertain, and when someone once said something about 28 Days Later being horror, I went “Really? You consider that horror?” Yeah, I know it’s horror, but movies don’t scare me as much anymore. Gross me out, absolutely.
This could be because I had a friend who was a year older than me whose parents would let us watch scary movies at her birthday parties. Candyman freaked me out. So did that movie with the little boy who walked down the hall with the hand on his back. I hid under the pool table all night, and while her friends were scared, too, they made merciless fun of me. Since then, scary movies haven’t really had the same impact.
October 20, 2014 — 8:50 AM
Gabryyl Pierce says:
‘The Other’ (1972), written by actor Thomas Tryon based on his novel (star of another fav ‘I Married A Monster From Outer Space’), solid psychological horror about 9-year-old twins Niles and Holland and their creepy “game”.
Remember seeing it as a kid and freaked me out…the entire tone of the film is understated from the sleepy farm to the hazy summer feel. The scene with the dead family member laid out in the parlor was soooo creeptastic.
October 20, 2014 — 9:04 AM
Peg says:
When I was younger, I found Candyman to be terrifying. 28 Days Later was also very scary and it had little to do with the zombie-like creatures, it was because you know when the shit hits the fan, the actions of the men like those in the military college is exactly what survivors will have to deal with. I am not bothered by gore, I am terrified of subjugation.
October 20, 2014 — 9:06 AM
Melanie Marttila says:
The Changeling. Total Canadian 70s cheese with George C. Scott. Atmospheric though. Decent story. Remains one of my top scary picks.
October 20, 2014 — 9:11 AM
wildbilbo says:
Hmmm, for genuine scares… Jacobs Ladder (Tim Robbins) comes to mind. Those hallucination/dream sequences in the hospital are horrifying.
For disturbing horror, Funny Games (Naomi Watts) – this home invasion horror was really scary because it stripped away the ‘fun’ factor of a horror film. With Most horrors you are scared, but still want the bad stuff to happen – it’s presented as a spectacle. But in Funny Games it isn’t fun, you don’t want these things to happen… But they do anyway. Profoundly uncomfortable.
It’s the best film I didn’t enjoy watching.
October 20, 2014 — 9:22 AM
Cindy Lowman says:
Funny Games bothered me more than any other movie. It’s too possible.
Insidious would have been second if the supernatural element wasn’t added. That movie would have been much better without it, because then, like Funny Games, it would be possible.
As a kid, it was The Abominable Dr. Phibes (Vincent Price) and its sequel that scared me. The thought of death traps stayed with me for years.
October 20, 2014 — 10:32 AM
A Citizen of the World says:
When I was about 10, I watched a Hong Kong movie about a family moving into an extremely creepy house full of homicidal ghosts. There was this one scene where the big sister of the family finally figured out what the female ghost was indicating and saw a rip in the wallpaper. She peeled away the wallpaper to show a very eerie giant kindergarten-level child’s drawing of the dad stabbing them all to death.
I can’t remember the name of that movie for the life of me but rest assured, I could NOT sleep for the weeks without covering my head with my blanket.
Asian Horror is definitely some of the finest horror in the world.
October 20, 2014 — 9:24 AM
smkay70 says:
Recently, “The Conjuring” did a great job of being pretty creepy and suspenseful and “The Purge” stressed me out quite a bit. Back in the day “Seven” for psychological creepiness and “The Grudge” for horror. Oh, oh yeah. Worst most disturbing movie ever for me was “kids.” Yikes.
October 20, 2014 — 9:38 AM
jeezusgut says:
Only movie that ever really frightened me was IT. Something about clowns, man.
October 20, 2014 — 9:39 AM
travis says:
Raising Caine, John Lithgow.
October 20, 2014 — 9:43 AM
Jo Vraca says:
Definitely the Exorcist! Agree about Requiem for a Dream. I’ll never forget it!
October 20, 2014 — 9:44 AM
Pavowski says:
It was mentioned already, but I’ll second Event Horizon. Deep space is terrifying enough in its own right; the idea of malevolent forces out there is a double-whammy. And a haunted ship in space? It’s horrifying and fantastic.
October 20, 2014 — 9:49 AM
Anthony says:
I had a healthy fear of Alien/Aliens for a long time after seeing it as a kid. Now they’re two of my favorite movies.
Event Horizon is a good one, same with The Thing. My favorite part about The Thing is it’s not really all that scary until your brain gets a hold of it and you realize that it could literally be anyone, anywhere, and you’d have no idea until it was too late.
October 20, 2014 — 9:52 AM
susielindau says:
I just blogged about my recent fave. Single White Female. Psychological thrillers are the best!
October 20, 2014 — 9:52 AM
susielindau says:
Oh yeah. The first time I saw Halloween, I didn’t sleep for a week. My boyfriend at the time went into the kitchen and came out with a butcher knife!!!!!!!
October 20, 2014 — 9:55 AM
jilltatara says:
I talked my mom into letting me go with my big brothers to see Tommy when I was about seven years old. The movie was seriously disturbing to a little kid. The acid queen in particular freak me right out!! The Omen was seriously scary and we were watching The Seventh Sign when it started hailing in the movie as one of the signs and, at the exact same time, it started hailing outside in real life! Although we tried to play it cool, we were all a bit scared by that.
October 20, 2014 — 9:59 AM
basilisksam says:
The Haunting – the 1960s black and white version not the terrible remake. It’s what you don’t see that’s scary and the sound design is terrifying. The book it’s based on Shirley Jackson’s Haunting of Hill House is likewise the scariest book every written as well as having the perfect opening paragraph.
October 20, 2014 — 10:00 AM
Lee Harris says:
This morning I woke early, and couldn’t get back to sleep, so I went downstairs and watched Sinister – a movie I’d been meaning to see for a while. It was 5.30am, I was on my own (well, in a room with 3 cats, who shifted, occasionally) in a nearly-200-year-old house that rarely wants to be totally silent. I watched the first hour, and decided to put on an episode of Elementary, instead. I then watched the final reel when it was nice and light and there were other living souls up and about.
October 20, 2014 — 10:01 AM
barry napier says:
My weak point is alien abduction movies that are done well. That’s why I am rather ashamed to admit that The Fourth Kind effed me up for weeks. It’s not even that great of a movie but DAMN it freaked me out. Also, I don’t care how much crap it gets, The Blair Witch Project never fails to creep me out…especially the final act.
October 20, 2014 — 10:03 AM
Kay Camden says:
Have you seen Altered? It’s like an alien abduction reversal, but…oh man…
October 20, 2014 — 10:15 AM
angelomarcos says:
I am so happy to see this post. The Fourth Kind freaked me out for the longest time, so I’m glad it did so for someone else too..!
I remember thinking that I didn’t believe any of the alien abduction stuff, but that, if the footage was genuine, then something seriously messed up must have happened to those people.
October 20, 2014 — 3:39 PM
Rick says:
I agree with Requiem for a Dream. I bought that movie at Goodwill for $3 and still can’tbring myself around to watch it. But the movie that stays with me since I was a little kid is a movie Silent Night Bloody Night and it’s not the one about the homicidal Santa. This one is from the 70’s and is about an insane asylum. There is a flashback where during a big fundraiser ball the inmates escape and wreck havoc on the party. The scene that has stayed with me forever…one of the inmates takes a cocktail glass and smashes it into a partygoers eye and the eye swishes into the glass like an olive. I can’t even find this film anywhere. It was on one of those late night Creature Feature shows (Chillller Theater maybe). Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things is another of those creepy-real life-70’s-horror movies.
October 20, 2014 — 10:05 AM
Nicholas Kaufmann says:
THE SHINING, THE EXORCIST, THE RING, and THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT are all movies that get under my skin every time I see them. Two other movies that are super freaky that your readers may not know about are THE ABANDONED (2006) and LAKE MUNGO (2008). Both are very creepy and effective, and I highly recommend them.
October 20, 2014 — 10:06 AM
Bess Gilmartin says:
The Woman in Black. Old-fashioned kind of scary, but really, really creepy.
October 20, 2014 — 10:07 AM
June Weiss says:
As a horror fan I don’t scare easily. But the first Nightmare on Elm Street nearly scared the literal piss out of me. Big bads that won’t go away or die just aren’t fair, IMO. Also, Andy Warhol’s Dracula, which I saw at age 21 in the 1970s, was pretty damned terrifying.
October 20, 2014 — 10:08 AM
spinnersinclair says:
When I was 11 I watched Sleepy Hollow (the Tim Burton film) and it gave me my first major panic attack, so I guess it deserves an honorable mention – I love watching it now, though, and don’t find it particularly scary. 😛
Nah, that honor goes to Oculus. I couldn’t sleep properly for a week afterward – that movie is REALLY scary, although I’d like to throw a warning out that a lot of horror comes from people hurting themselves (my brother can’t stand that kind of horror). The acting is amazing and the structure keeps you off-balance, which increases the scariness of the whole thing.
Oh, and I have to add The Babadook, even though I haven’t seen it yet – because I kid you not, THE TRAILER has made me feel jittery for days. I’m looking forward to seeing it even though I know it’ll probably wreck my sleep schedule.
October 20, 2014 — 10:11 AM
samakain says:
Oh boy. Trouble is not to make the list too long.
In the Mouth of Madness – Great watch for anybody who loves a good book
Event Horizon – Deep space, eyeballs and unknowable evil, what else do you need?
Alien – Still one of the best examples of the genre hands down.
Citadel – Smaller British film. Some of the imagery stuck with me for days. Really well executed even if it does try to batter you with transparent social commentary.
Loved Ones – Because what are horror movies if we don’t throw in prom night, concern parents and power tools?
Martyrs – Ending of this still makes me squirm years after I’ve seen it.
Rec – Just another great example of the genre, do not believe the American remake
VHS 1 and 2 – A mixed bag of horror shorts, some ridiculous some really great.
Room 1408 – Because every list needs Cusack and it might as well be a good one.
Also, honorable mentions because while they work with troupes of the genre in interesting ways, I wouldn’t classify them as scary movies as such:
The Battery – Best take of the zombie apocalypse I’ve seen. Manages to be fresh when we are all drowning in the living dead.
Contracted – I can’t really say anything about this without knee capping that moment 20 minutes in when you figure out what’s happening and still can’t look away.
Afflicted – Found footage can be done well, with the right premise and over used monsters can still have teeth. Pleasantly surprised by this one.
October 20, 2014 — 10:17 AM
Kay Camden says:
If you want disturbing watch any Lars von Trier film. I think that’s kind of the point of his work but still.
October 20, 2014 — 10:18 AM